Portugal's Drug Policy

Like every other western country Portugal has a drug problem. What has gotten so much attention is it's way of handling illegal drugs. Almost everyone else considers a harsh policy of simply putting everyone in jail that has anything to do with drugs as definitely not the way to handle it.

The trend today, which Portugal has helped to pioneer, is to treat common drug users as people who need help. The dealers are the real criminals.

Decriminalizing drugs like marijuana does not necessarily mean endorsing drug use. It is simply choosing the lesser of two evils. The fact is that people are going to do drugs anyway. The best thing to do, for society as a whole, is to provide a safe place and offer clean needles. Life often consists of choosing the lesser of two evils, and this is an ideal example.

Harsh punishment does little to deter crime. Someone who is using or addicted to drugs probably isn't spending a lot of time thinking about the legal consequences. The reason for this new policy, in countries like Portugal, is that simply putting people in jail definitely isn't working.

Also remember that being "wrong" and being "illegal" are two different things. The purpose of the law is to facilitate the orderly functioning of society. Just because something is wrong doesn't necessarily mean that it should be illegal. It is completely unrealistic for everything that could be considered as wrong to also be illegal.

Let's review the investigation of "MARIJUANA", in the compound posting "Investigations", December 2018.M

MARIJUANA

All right, how much sense does this make? 

We know how destructive alcohol can be. It damages the health. Many deaths are directly attributable to the destructive health effects of alcohol. Countless people are killed and injured in accidents that are directly attributable to alcohol. 

Then there is the social effects of alcohol. It's overuse has destroyed endless marriages and families and careers.

Next, we have cigarettes. We do not even need to go into their destructive effects here. Cigarettes are not nicknamed "cancer sticks" for nothing. But cancer is only the beginning of their health effects. We used to be shown films in school of people dying in hospitals, pleading with young people not to start smoking.

But yet alcohol and cigarettes are perfectly legal in the western countries. 

What about marijuana (cannabis)? It's health effects are generally considered as not as bad as cigarettes and it's intoxicating effect no worse than alcohol. It is also believed to be less addictive than alcohol.

So why, at least until a relatively recent relaxing of the rules in some countries, is alcohol and cigarettes acceptable while possession or use of marijuana gets one thrown in jail?

How can marijuana be treated so differently from alcohol and cigarettes when the general opinion is that it is no worse than either?

The factor that does make marijuana different from alcohol is the way it is produced. Tobacco is grown on large plantations and the commercial production of both alcohol and cigarettes are industrial processes. Marijuana, in stark contrast, can be grown on virtually any plot of ground, or even inside under special lamps.

Have you ever stopped to think that this might be why marijuana is treated so differently by the law? Since I have no personal interest in any of the three, maybe I can give an unbiased opinion.

Manufacturers of alcohol and cigarettes are industrialists who will obviously have far more political power than anyone who grows marijuana. In America, legislation against marijuana seems to date from 1906. This was during the Gilded Age when capitalists had a tremendous amount of power.

Could it be that manufacturers of alcohol and cigarettes used their political power to eliminate marijuana as a competitor by making sure that it was illegal?

But then what about the countless thousands of people who have spent time in prison for marijuana? Was it all really because of Robber Baron tactics from the Gilded Age? Wouldn't that make it just about the greatest travesty of justice that the world has ever seen?